AMSTERDAM: Dutch politicians have shirked the niggling issue of the European Constitution for a year and a half but next week's election victor must give a vision of the bloc's future or risk damaging the country's standing abroad.
Besides branding the charter “dead” after the Dutch joined the French in voting it down in 2005, the government has had little to say on Europe during a period of “reflection”, which comes as Dutch political focus has turned ever more inward.With the Germans vowing to revive the Constitution debate next year, the Dutch must contribute to any reworking of the treaty if they hope to persuade a suspicious electorate that European reform and national interests can go hand in hand, and convince Brussels they remain committed Europeans.
A poll by Maurice de Hond found 64 per cent would again reject the Constitution if a new referendum was held, part of the reason why Europe has been entirely absent from an election campaign dominated by concerns over finances and pensions.
“If you are not part of the debate, others will decide on your fate,” Dutch European Competition Commissioner Nellie Kroes warned her compatriots. But such entreaties have failed to stir public interest as politicians gingerly promise to respect voters' resounding “Nee”.
“Brussels is looking to the Netherlands and France after the 'No' votes, and to us in particular because of the astonishing silence we have had here,” said Mendeltje van Keulen, a European affairs expert at the Clingendael Institute.
“But there has been a complete lack of leadership shown by our top politicians.” Brussels realised the reform project would have to be put on ice pending Dutch elections next Wednesday and French polls next year. Now Germany hopes to chart a way forward during its presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2007, as internal reform of the expanding bloc becomes more pressing.
In France conservative presidential frontrunner Nicolas Sarkozy has outlined his vision for a “mini-treaty” with key institutional reforms, and pandered to French concerns over Turkey's EU candidacy by demanding Brussels set final borders.
By contrast, in the Netherlands talk of the constitution has come only from Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot of the ruling Christian Democrats in a challenge to Sarkozy's idea.
The defunct charter focused on institutional reforms at the expense of policy and content, Bot said, adding that Sarkozy's “mini-treaty” would merely postpone tough questions of EU policy to 2009 and beyond, while citizens craved immediate answers. “People at this stage are not very interested in having a thorough discussion on how to transform their 'No' into something useful,” Frans Timmermans, foreign affairs spokesman for the opposition Labour, told Reuters in an interview.
“People want their 'No' to be respected.”
The Labour party has said it would put any new treaty to another public vote, but other parties including the ruling Christian Democrats, predicted to become the largest party in the new parliament, are much less clear.—Reuters
